Digital Safety Workshop
The Anti-Piracy Coalition (APC) hosted a comprehensive Digital Safety Workshop on 23 September 2025, at Gordon Institute Business of Science (GIBS) in Illovo, Johannesburg to combat the growing cyber threats and protect South Africa’s creative economy.
The workshop, themed “Building a Secure, Innovative & Equitable Digital Landscape for All,” brought together industry leaders, government representatives, and key stakeholders to address the critical intersection between digital piracy and national cybersecurity.
Our managing director Collen Dlamini had the honour of attending the workshop as one of the stakeholders as they reframed piracy not just as an industry concern but as a dual threat: a risk to consumers’ cybersecurity and an existential crisis for South Africa’s creative industries, which depend on legitimate revenue to survive and thrive.
They stressed the dangers piracy has even on its consumer and how it cripples creatives financially, especially those who their Intellectual Property is their daily bread.
While digital piracy is widely recognised for its impact on South Africa’s creative industries, costing artists, creators, and legitimate businesses substantial revenue, new research reveals far more insidious dangers. Pirate websites increasingly serve as conduits for malware, phishing schemes, and data theft, directly threatening South African citizens and compromising the integrity of the nation’s ICT infrastructure.
The stakeholders left there with one unified message: ‘the era of viewing piracy as harmless is over.’
The impact of piracy was not only found to be devastating globally but economical crippling locally too. With it costing the South African economy an estimated R5.8 billion annually, leading to job losses across the creative industry.
The stakeholders established a need for stronger legislation and the act of blocking illegal sites as the critical first step.
